Tag: school

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Stress and anxiety levels in teenagers have drastically increased over the last few decades.

Soon as the responsibilities of the world around them lay on their shoulders heavier, more and more teens are facing health problems both on the physical and on the emotional sides.

As a parent, it is hard to handle these conditions or often even know that your teens are facing them.

Many times, it is easy to chalk up the teenage stress and anxiety a child is facing as just normal teen problems. Yet, serious conditions are often present and should be addressed as quickly as possible.

Why Teens Suffer From Anxiety

Teens, just like adults will suffer from anxiety as well as from stress from several reasons. First, these conditions can be hereditary, and they can have a much greater likelihood of this happening to them if their parents have had conditions such as anxiety.

For the most part, teens and children who suffer from anxiety and from stress have factors in their lives that push them in that direction. For example, they may be faced with things like divorce of their parents, stress at school and even peer pressure.

Although most parents do not realize it, teens are under a great deal of pressure in many areas of their lives. Sometimes, the body and the mind react to those conditions in the way of anxiety and/or stress.

Symptoms To Notice

Often, these conditions may be overlooked. This is common because the symptoms associated with stress and anxiety are those things that most of us would relate to just normal, teen behavior.

Nevertheless, it is necessary to identify if there is a problem and treat it accordingly as it can be harmful to their health in the long run.

Symptoms of anxiety and high stress levels include:

· Feelings of uneasiness. Something just does not seem right although there may be nothing wrong
· Abdominal discomfort that does not seem to come from a physical condition
· Dry mouth
· Rapid heartbeat that is not due to physical exertion
· Dizziness
· Shortness of breath not associated with physical exertion
· Frequent need to urinate
· Tightness in the chest, sometimes escalating to true pain
· Diarrhea
· Problems with swallowing
· Insomnia
· Irritability or anger that seems unfounded
· Fear
· The feeling of just not being in control
· Inability to concentrate on tasks

Option Treatments

The treatments for high stress and anxiety affecting teenagers may include several things.

First, identifying and removing pressure is often necessary.

Second, the doctor may recommend a balanced diet, physical activity and good relaxation techniques.

Additionally, medications are available to treat anxiety problems, including benzodiazepine tablets.

Yet, medications should be considered with caution and for the worse cases as they generally have side effects that are not pleasant or healthy either.

At that moment, tears were starting to run down my cheeks…but I didn’t want my son to see his dad crying so I dashed into the bathroom and cried with the shower head on to mask my cries.

After that moment, I went towards my son to give him a tight hug and applied medication on him, while coaxing him to sleep. Then, it was time to clear up the mess on the bed. When everything was done and well past midnight, I passed my son’s room, and saw that he was still crying, not from the pain on his little buttock, but from looking at the photograph of his beloved mommy.

A year has passed since the incident, I have tried, in this period, to focus on giving him both the love of his dad and mom, and to attend to most of his needs. And soon, he is turning seven, and will be graduating from kindergarten. Fortunately, the incident did not leave a lasting impression on his childhood memories and he is still happily growing up.

However, not so long ago, I hit my boy again, with much regret. This time, his kindergarten teacher called, informing me of my son’s absence from school. I took off early from work and went home, expecting him to explain. But he wasn’t to be found, so I went around our house, calling out his name and eventually found him outside a stationery shop, happily playing computer games.

I was fuming, brought him home and whack the hell out of him. He did not retaliate, except to say, ‘I am sorry, Dad’.

But after much probing, I realized that it was a ‘Talent Show’ organized by his school and the invite is for every student’s mommy. And that was the reason for his absence as he has no mommy..

I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem. He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business on a football scholarship.

Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn’t me having to get up there and speak.

Graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses.

He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him. Boy, sometimes I was jealous. Today was one of those days. I could see that he was nervous about his speech.

So, I smacked him on the back and said, “Hey, big guy, you’ll be great!” He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled. “Thanks,” he said. As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began,

“Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach…but mostly your friends… I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story.”

I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn’t have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home.

He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile. “Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable.”

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment. I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize its depth.

Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture you can change a person’s life. For better or for worse. God puts us all in each other’s lives to impact one another in some way. Look for God in others.

“Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.”

There is no beginning or end. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift.

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school.

His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books.

I thought to myself, “Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd.”

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him.

They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes.

My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye.

As I handed him his glasses, I said, “Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives.”

“He looked at me and said, “Hey thanks!”

There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before.

He said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books.

He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends. He said yes.

We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him.

Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again.

I stopped him and said, “Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books every day!” He just laughed and handed me half the books.

Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. When we were seniors, we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I was going to Duke.